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| Note to the reader:
The content below was actually written by Sharon Davis.
Her blog is better than anything I could parody. Curious?
Check out the
official Sharon Davis Blog. |
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| Thursday, August 21, 2003 |
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| How to Spot The Big Lie |
Imagine an election where my husband
could receive 49 percent of the vote to stay in office,
but lose the election to someone who only gets 15 percent
of the vote. That is exactly what could happen on October
7th. The conservatives who organized and funded this recall
effort are hoping for just this type of outcome.
Attempting to change the outcome of elections is becoming
the normal course of business for the conservatives. When
they could not defeat President Clinton at the ballot
box, they attempted to impeach him. When it looked as
if Al Gore would win in 2000, there were shenanigans in
Florida and the US Supreme Court that changed the outcome
of the election in favor of George W. Bush. The conservatives
do not like the legal redistricting plans in Texas and
Colorado so they are maneuvering to make unprecedented
mid-decade changes. And the conservatives are at it here
in California.
Why are the conservatives so successful? Because they
are masters of the "Big Lie". If you repeat a lie enough
it becomes part of the accepted truth. Remember White
Water? The conservatives, through Ken Starr, spent $70
million of taxpayer's money to promote that big lie.
Then there was the Florida election lie: Al Gore is a
"bad sport" so he should just step aside even though he
won the election.
Now the Big Lie has come to California and are as follows:
Conservatives say Gray Davis lied about the budget shortfall.
The truth is: all information related to budget projections
is public information. The Franchise Tax Board and the
bipartisan Legislative Analyst make budget projections
that are independent of the governor.
Conservatives say Gray Davis mismanaged the budget. The
truth is: The governor cannot pass a budget without two-thirds
majority of the legislature. In other words, you need
Republican votes to pass any spending measure. Nearly
all of the major spending increases went to education
and healthcare for children. These investments are paying
off with student test scores going up for an unprecedented
five years in a row and healthier children.
Conservatives say Gray Davis was slow in responding to
the energy crisis. The truth is: The basis for the energy
crisis is based in a flawed deregulation plan devised
by Pete Wilson and his cronies. At the beginning of the
crisis all of the industry and government experts said
the only thing Gray could do was raise rates to consumers.
Gray knew the energy companies like Enron were gaming
the system, but he could not prove it. (It took two years
to prove and now it is general knowledge.) In addition,
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refused to stop
the energy companies from gaming the system. Maybe the
reason the federal government was so unresponsive is that
Vice President Chaney was secretly meeting with the same
energy companies to form a national energy policy.
In a nutshell, Gray did take a number of actions to address
some of the underlining problems. He shortened the permitting
process for new power plants and 24 new power plants were
built. He promoted the most aggressive energy conversation
program in the country and consumers conserved enough
power to equal three new power plants. And he insured
the availability of power with long-term contracts. (These
contracts have been much maligned, but now that the cost
of natural gas has gone up dramatically, these contracts
are keeping consumer prices stable.
There is not enough room in this entry to highlight all
that my husband accomplished over the past four and a
half years, so I will cover other topics in future blogs.
We cannot stop this travesty of basic democracy but we
can defeat this recall effort.
It will not be easy. It will take a strong grassroots
effort that I would like you to be a part of in the next
50 days. |
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| Monday, August 18, 2003 |
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| A Wife’s Observations |
There is too much misinformation floating
around out there about my husband. When I read newspaper
profiles about him, I hardly recognize the person I've
been married to for the past 20 years. So here is the
Gray Davis I know.
Like most guys, my husband loves sports. It is probably
because he played every sport he could when he was growing
up. He still plays golf and we try to play together whenever
possible. He is actually pretty good, averaging about
a 15 handicap - not bad for someone who only gets to play
about 6 times a year (I should add he played golf for
two years on the Stanford Golf Team and had a much lower
handicap.). He watches a lot more ESPN than CNN, FOX or
MSNBC.
When we have a moment off, we enjoy the same things others
do: seeing friends, dinner and a movie, or just taking
the time to read a good book. Since our schedules are
so hectic, our favorite evening is when we rent a movie,
pick-up some take-out and spend a quiet evening at home.
Contrary to popular belief, we do not go to political
fundraisers or charities events every night.
My husband exercises every day and is pretty careful about
what he eats. So he is in pretty good shape for someone
who turned 60 last December.
While newspaper profiles have suggested that my husband
and I have few friends, they inevitably come to this conclusion
by interviewing people we rarely see socially.
The truth is, during these interviews, we are asked to
give a list of friends for reporters to contact. We refuse
to do so because we do not want our friends to be harassed
or unfairly scrutinized. As public figures, the media
spotlight is a fact of life for us, but it shouldn't be
for our friends.
We would rather risk a negative story than use our friends
in that manner.
Fortunately, we have many friends in politics. My husband
could not get elected five times to statewide office without
them. Nearly all Democrat elected officials are adamantly
against the recall. They have come to rallies, appeared
on radio and television in support of the Gray. Senator
Dianne Feinstein has been one of our most ardent supporters.
You do not hear much about the because it is not news
for a Democrat to support a Democrat., yet it is the few
who have something negative to say who get all the attention.
Well, that's the world of politics, folks.
You might thing I would be disheartened by all of this.
Actually, I am not. You cannot let others control your
feelings. When you have a strong belief system like my
husband and I, you learn to take the good with the bad. |
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| Thursday, August 14, 2003 |
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| Notes From The Campaign |
Well, we are off and running again.
When Gray beats this recall, he will be the first Governor
in California history to win three elections to serve
two terms.
Why am I so certain he can win? Because it feels like
we have been here before. In 1998, when Gray first ran
for Governor, many of the “so-called” political experts
said we would never win. They even suggested my husband
should just drop out! After all, they said, we were running
against a wealthy businessman and a well-known congresswoman.
We were dead last in the polls, causing one political
columnist to write him off as “road kill.” After a dramatic
come-from-behind victory, we dubbed our campaign “The
Road Kill Comeback Tour.”
Now we are in the middle of the biggest political story
of the year. At times it feels as if we are living in
the eye of a hurricane. As all of this craziness swirls
around us, we feel fairly calm. Aside from the nearly
constant media coverage, additional public appearances
and seven-day-a-week schedule, our lives are going pretty
much as normal – well, as normal as a political life can
be…which is not very normal at all.
During media interviews, I am often asked how we are dealing
with this. Under the circumstances, we are doing pretty
well. Gray and I both feel strongly that you cannot give
in to negative feelings – they are counterproductive in
the long run. We focus on the positives.
We have been moved by all of the people who have come
forward to be supportive and to help. We are grateful
for every Democrat who has stood with us and every Republican
with the courage to admit this is wrong.
Imagine, just 40 days after the inauguration for my husband’s
second term, the Republicans began this recall bid. I
was astonished to learn that in California, you can be
recalled from office without any finding of malfeasance
or violation of the law. If an organization can get enough
signatures from registered voters, you are subject to
recall (Only 18 other states have a recall provision and
California is the only state where a recall can take place
without cause).
In fact, there have been 33 recall attempts against California
governors in the past 40 years. Even Ronald Reagan had
three recall attempts against him. The difference this
time was that a wealthy, ultra-conservative congressman
funded the effort. Darrell Issa spent nearly $2 million
to hire out-of-state signature gatherers to force a special
election, which will cost taxpayers more than $70 million.
A special election generally has a very low turn out,
which generally favors Republicans. Yet, because of the
national attention of this extraordinary event, I’ll bet
there will be an unusually large turnout.
I’ve learned over the years that politics is not for the
faint of heart. That statement has never been more true. |
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